1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to backup and restoration techniques and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing single instance restoration of data files.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical computing environment, an organization may employ a number of technologies to store, secure and/or recover mission critical data. For example, the organization may employ one or more data protection systems to backup and recover the mission critical data after a disaster or data corruption. As another example, the organization may employ one or more security systems to detect and/or mitigate network-based threats, such as viruses, intrusions, SPAM and/or the like. Furthermore, the organization may employ one or more data leakage prevention technologies at a content filter (e.g., at a network gateway, mail server and/or the like) to monitor and control data communications between computing devices within the organization and another computing device.
In the typical computing environment, various data files (e.g., such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, structural designs and/or the like) are stored at one or more computers (i.e., clients). Sometimes, the various data files are backed up to one or more storage devices (e.g., a tape drive, a hard disk drive and/or the like) on a regular basis. Generally, backups may be performed to protect the data files that store important, critical information. As such, the data files are restored as and when required. Data file restoration ensures uninterrupted productivity for the typical computing environment.
Currently, Single Instance Storage (SIS) techniques are utilized to reduce network bandwidth consumption during a backup and/or restore process for the data files. Generally, a signature (e.g., a hash value, a parity bit, a checksum bit and/or the like) is computed and stored for each of the backed up data files. The signatures are leveraged during data file restoration of the one or more data files. However, a certain data file may have the same signature as one or more data files that are already available locally. As such, multiple copies of the certain data file are restored.
For example, a user may communicate a restore request to a file server for a file A.TXT due to a failure, accidental deletion and/or data corruption. Such a file may be stored on the file server or locally at a client computer. In response, the file server proceeds to service the restore request and communicates the file A.TXT across the data network. As a result, available network bandwidth capacity is wasted because a server copy of the file A.TXT was used to service the restore request instead of a local copy.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for providing single instance restoration of data files.